The Fantasy MVP Episode w/Expert Picks

Hey, footballers, it's your favorite guy in the business, Jake Sealy at Olin Kidd, or at least I like to tell myself that. I love you guys, and I got to tell you for Fancy MVP. Man, this is a tough one. I want to name a million people, mostly because I look at it as part of the question, which I'm sure you guys do, is value, and especially middle rounds, finding that value. Like I'd love to say, Darius Geis and Miles Blake and Christian Kirk, and the list goes on, D.D. Westbrook, but...

I'll give you one that's going to the third round, sometimes even fourth, that should return close to first round value. And that's my boy. You guys know Josh Jacobs. I say my boy, everybody is not like he's undrafted or even going that late. I said third, fourth round. But I said time and again, John Gruden, when given the chances, used a bell cow running back. Two hundred and ninety carries in 14 games for Cadillac Williams when he drafted him in the first round. Josh Jacobs can do it all.

We'll do it all. We'll near or eclipse 300 touches. And in doing so, we'll return RB1 value in the third round, which that alone right there makes him the fantasy MVP for 2019. Love you guys. Have a good one. Thank you, Jake. We love you too. And I'm not going to say these guys, but I'm going to get. That was a classic Jason move right there. He wants credit for the names he threw out. Yeah, that was pro move, Jake. Well done. Josh Jacobs.

I like that, you know, when you think about John Gruden what he wants, what he's got behind Josh Jacobs, fighting tooth and nail to turn this franchise around, I don't, I mean, he knows what he has behind Jacobs. And he's not content to the point of taking a first round running back, the most highly scouted one. And so he should have the workload. He should have the opportunity. We haven't seen him do it even going back to college to the degree that, you know.

He would need to be the fantasy MVP, but I think it's possible. He's drafted at RB 18 right now in the back of the third round. He's going behind Chris Carson. I love it. I think Josh Jacobs is a fantastic running back. I had brought up a few weeks ago how crazy it was to me that the David Montgomery hype had gotten so spiral out of control that he was starting to go in front of the first round running back, Josh Jacobs. It was just, it was absolutely wild to me.

to me as one of the safest volume guarantees of the running backs in this year's fantasy drafts. All right, it's our turn, guys. Our fantasy football MVP is for 2019. I'll go first. We mentioned his name. Here's my fantasy football MVP. I believe you've met my fitness consiglieri, Michelle. Sony Michelle. Second year, New England Patriots running back. Former first round pick, playoff.

Dominator, Super Bowl champion. That's a nice rookie season, by the way. Not reflected in the average draft position due to injury concerns due to not being proven at all in any capacity to be a pass-catching capable running back. But I don't view him and Chris Carson in very different lights. When you look at, Jason just made the point, how does Mike Evans end up the wide receiver one?

it's capability to produce an ungodly amount of touchdowns. That's what Sony-Michel has the capability to do in this offense for the Super Bowl champion. You saw multiple 100-yard games in the playoffs, six touchdowns in the playoff run. This was a player that, you know, when he went down halfway through the season, people said, oh, no, that's it. Sony's gone, done, finish. Came back, didn't just come back, came back, and was...

Outstanding. Looks outstanding in camp. Looks outstanding in the preseason. Looks like he'll be the bell cow. And so Sony Michelle being drafted late third round, early fourth round, the best value when you are looking for somebody that can finish in that top range. So he is my official fantasy football MVP for 2019. To speak to how he's looked in preseason, that last preseason game just wowed me. I mean, he looked so fast.

His shiftiness was there, powerful. I mean, he looked like a superstar running back. I know it's just one preseason game. But we saw it in the playoffs in the Super Bowl run last year. He caught a pass in the preseason, you know, 15 yards down the field where on first glance, you know, they wear similar numbers, 26, 28. I was like, oh, that's James White. Oh, no, that's not James White. That was Sony Michelle. If, if that becomes a part of, and you don't need 50.

For Sony, you don't need 50 receptions. No, you just need like 30. Like 30 receptions and then end up with 15, 16 touchdown somehow, which is he's better than the Garrett Blunt, and Blunt's done that in that offense. And you know that Tom Brady, it's defense, it's the running game. I like the odds of Sonny Michelle. At a minimum outperforming ADP, you're super happy with him. Best case scenario, you're a top five running back.

Uh, my fantasy MVP should surprise nobody because recently I was saying I wish we had another my guy because he would be in. And this basically is, it's Tyler Lockett. Hot Locket. Hot Locket. Hot Locket is, you can do the whole bit. I'll do the whole bit. Diary pocket. Thank you. Um.

Tyler Locke is a great wide receiver. And the narrative around him, the reason why he's not being drafted as a one or even as a locked and loaded two is because... Locked it and loaded two. It's just sitting right there. I was thinking it. All of the narrative has been about regression, right? We've talked about it. You've talked about it. I've talked about it. The fact that you can't be as efficient as he was last season. Regression is coming on, you know,

Russell Wilson is not going to have a perfect pass rating, throwing to Tyler Lockett for a second year in a row. But all of the focus can't be only on regressing from these abnormal, historic, unbelievable numbers. Some of them maybe should focus on the fact that he had unbelievable, historic, phenomenal numbers because he's really good.

Tyler Lockett's had a career where he's been derailed by injury, but through the last several years, he's one of Matt Harmon's reception, guys who've popped off the page as a great wide receiver. And here's what I want to bring up. Think about Doug Baldwin, right? Doug Baldwin. Thinking, closing my eyes. Yes, close your eyes and think about. It was a good time. So Doug Baldwin.

For three of the last four years, obviously not last season when he got two injured and was forced into retirement. The three previous seasons, he was the wide receiver eight, the wide receiver 10, and the wide receiver 13. And we could go, okay, well, yeah, but he was the clear number one, yada, yada, but think about his targets through that time. 103, 125, 116. But, but Jason. Yes, voice of public opinion.

That was a completely different offense with a different offensive coordinator and a different priority to the passing game. Yes, but that's why I bring up. Thank you, Miss Piggy. For your question. Oh, Kerman. It's a very valid point because totally different offense, totally different coordinator, but the same quarterback, and I believe the same amount of target. That was the issue when we were talking the other day was that there.

It's not a huge passing volume, right? Like how many targets is Tyler Lockett going to be able to see? Well, my point is Doug Baldwin did it with just barely over 100, three years in a row. Tyler Lockett is going to get his on the weekly basis and certainly on the season. There's no other options. I trust Russell Wilson to get the job done. And if you're talking about, I mean, you know, those few targets.

14 touchdowns, seven touchdowns, eight touchdowns for Doug Baldwin. And also, don't forget, Doug Baldwin is gone. I know we feel like he was gone last year, but he played 13 games. He received 73 targets. He was actually there, and now that is a vacated role that has not been filled by anybody other than Tyler Lockett. I think Tyler Lockett is locketed to be a great fantasy. The nice.

thing about Tyler Lockett and what his role is in the offense and they paid him and they paid him a lot when they did it is the fact that you could look really wrong for like two quarters with Tyler Lockett and then look really right. It's just one play. I mean, he's such a big play guy. Russell Wilson buying time in the pocket means the ball goes out to Tyler Lockett. I mean, that's the way it works. So Mike, your fantasy football MVP pick, you'll close us out here.

What does the hitman have for us? Much like Jason's pick, this should come as no surprise because he was in the running from my guys. I'm going with Devanta Freeman. I'm going to go with a player who has been the overall number one fantasy running back because I think the only thing to fear about Devante Freeman is injury. I thought he was going to say fear itself. Well.

That's probably, okay, two things. Fear itself and injury. He's guaranteed. He's locked in or locketed in, as Jason would say, to his role as the number one running back in a very high-powered offense. This is not Russell Wilson, who's going to throw up 3,400 yards type of offense. This is Matt Ryan, who will be up.

at 4,500 yards. This will be one of the best offenses in the entire league. Devonta Freeman, as he had back-to-back years of 11 rushing touchdowns, led the league in rushing touchdowns when he had his number one year. And then on top of that, he's had seasons of 97 targets, 65 targets. And then those targets kind of evaporated because Steve Sarkisian doesn't know how to use his best offensive weapons. Look at the lack of touchdowns for Julio Jones and things like that.

Freeman is a really, really good player. Look at who's behind him. The Atlanta Falcons don't even know who's behind Devonta Freeman in the number two role. Is it Edel Smith? Is it Brian Hill? Does it matter? The answer is no, because Devonta Freeman is the number one guy on a high-powered offense. And normally to get a player in that situation, you would have to pay a late first, at least a second round pick. But Freeman, because of the fear of the injury, he has slipped into the third round.

I'm buying the bounce back. I'm on board with you completely. And I will add one more fuel to the fire, which is just remembering, I mean, all of this contract talk with Ezekiel Elliott and Todd Gurley and, you know, what we've seen in recent years, we forget Freeman is the fifth highest paid running back in football. He's 27 years old. He's being paid in the, you know, it's not the same as Lev Bell, Gurley, David Johnson, and I'm forgetting one. But.

He's being paid in that upper echelon of running back money. He's over $8 million a year to be the guy. They're not going to give up on him quickly. They're not going to try to find a replacement for a guy getting paid those numbers if they believe he still has it left. Same age as David Johnson. So I'm buying the bounce back because I just don't see the competition. Look, the guy ran for 4.9 yards per carry last year. Yep. On 14 carries.

on 14 carries. Nice. Yeah, the consistency chart, not one to look at for last season. No. But that's why you get him at a discount. So I like to pick. I like to pick. That is it for the fantasy MVP episode. I want to thank everybody that contributed from the fantasy football community. You guys are awesome. You all do incredible work. And I mean that sincerely. It's kind of like, you know,

It's a brotherhood of sorts, a community, camaraderie in the industry, even though we compete on different little things. We're all seeking the same thing, which is to help you win your league. We're very passionate. It's a healthy co-optition. Yes, yes. And so Brad Evans, Adam Rank, Jamie Eisenberg, Evan Silva, J.J. Zacharyce and Marcus Grant, Jake Sealy, and the illustrious Matthew Berry. We appreciate you guys contributing to this episode of the show.

We're looking forward to... Why didn't you name me? I was also a contributor on this episode. Thank you to Jason Moore. Awesome. Yeah, I was... I'm not going to turn on you right now. This show's been so good. So, send us your fantasy MVP pitch. Yeah. We'd love to hear from you either comment on YouTube, at the FF Ballers on Twitter. We'd love to hear who you think.

either whether you believe some of these picks today or whether you've got a dark horse for a fantasy football MVP for this year. It's going to be a lot of fun. Congrats on all your drafts and those drafting this weekend. That's it for us. We'll be back tomorrow, the fantasy footballers. Enjoy that preseason week four football. Oh, yeah, that's happening too. Let the season start soon. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. You for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.